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| Mohammad Ali, who was targeted killed on Saryab Road, Quetta |
Daily Times
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Shia man shot dead in Quetta
Daily Times
Friday, June 1, 2012
Hazaras at history's crossroads
Amir MateenFriday, June 01, 2012
From Print Edition
QUETTA: The dilemma of the Hazara's predicament is not that the solution is proving elusive, but that so far even the problem has not been fully understood. It’s a multifaceted issue. At a cursory glance, it appears a simple sectarian issue, but it isn’t. It is a critical element in resolving the larger Balochistan conundrum and one whose impact will be felt in Afghanistan, Iran and beyond.
The Hazara question is arguably a complex one. Hazara activists were asked at a seminar recently why they supported a separate province in the Hazara area of Pakhtunkhwa. It was difficult to explain to the supposedly learned members of the Islamabad elite that Hazara as a people had nothing to do with Hazara the area in Abbottabad.
From Print Edition
QUETTA: The dilemma of the Hazara's predicament is not that the solution is proving elusive, but that so far even the problem has not been fully understood. It’s a multifaceted issue. At a cursory glance, it appears a simple sectarian issue, but it isn’t. It is a critical element in resolving the larger Balochistan conundrum and one whose impact will be felt in Afghanistan, Iran and beyond.
The Hazara question is arguably a complex one. Hazara activists were asked at a seminar recently why they supported a separate province in the Hazara area of Pakhtunkhwa. It was difficult to explain to the supposedly learned members of the Islamabad elite that Hazara as a people had nothing to do with Hazara the area in Abbottabad.
Yet the human side of the issue first must be taken into consideration before delving into its strategic dimension. One cannot ignore the extent of the injustices that have been committed against the Hazaras in the last couple of decades.... Continue Reading...
Thursday, May 31, 2012
The victory of the void, a defeat for the Taliban
The Bamiyan Buddhas will not be rebuilt, says Unesco. The architect Andrea Bruno proposes a scheme that focuses reverently on their absence
By Anna Somers Cocks. Conservation, Issue 236, June 2012
Published online: 31 May 2012
By Anna Somers Cocks. Conservation, Issue 236, June 2012
Published online: 31 May 2012
The empty niche of the Great Buddha in 2010. “The void is the true sculpture,” says Andrea Bruno (inset), Afghanistan’s most seasoned conservation architect
When Andrea Bruno, an architectural consultant to Unesco for the past 40 years, went back to the Bamiyan Buddhas, blown up in March 2001 by the Taliban, he immediately scrapped all ideas he might have had about some sort of replacement. “The void is the true sculpture,” he says. “It stands disembodied witness to the will, thoughts and spiritual tensions of men long gone. The immanent presence of the niche, even without its sculpture, represents a victory for the monument and a defeat for those who tried to obliterate its memory with dynamite.” ...Continue Reading...
When Andrea Bruno, an architectural consultant to Unesco for the past 40 years, went back to the Bamiyan Buddhas, blown up in March 2001 by the Taliban, he immediately scrapped all ideas he might have had about some sort of replacement. “The void is the true sculpture,” he says. “It stands disembodied witness to the will, thoughts and spiritual tensions of men long gone. The immanent presence of the niche, even without its sculpture, represents a victory for the monument and a defeat for those who tried to obliterate its memory with dynamite.” ...Continue Reading...
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Born Pakistani, he died a Hazara
Amir MateenThursday, May 31, 2012
From Print Edition
QUETTA: Major Shafaat died a sad broken man. Abandoned by his institution. Betrayed by childhood friends. Forsaken by his hometown. His only fault was to have been born different. A man with a flat nose and chinky eyes. An ethnic Hazara.
He lived a rich childhood frolicking up and down the Quetta streets with his Baloch, Pashtun, Punjabi and Hazara friends from school. Ethnicity did not matter at all in those days. Friends were—well—just friends. He was lucky that he was able to fulfill his ambition to join Pakistan Army. There is a long tradition among his community to join army dating back to 1830s when Captain Jacob—of Jacobabad fame—recruited Hazaras for the First Afghan war. Musa Khan joined Hazara Pioneers Regiment in 1904 as a sepoy and rose to become Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff and West Pakistan Governor. Shafaat admired General Musa and Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Sharbat Changezi as his role models from his community.
Shafaat, now a major posted in Rawalpindi, volunteered to be posted to his hometown about three years ago. He thought he would be better off serving in Quetta—among dear friends and family. The city had changed drastically by then. He found his non-hazara bosom friends avoiding him. Some of them even showed hostility. “I felt it was just because I had a flat nose and chinky eyes like most descendants of Mongol Khan, “ he said visibly Irritated. Disheartened, he took a leave and got himself enrolled in Balochistan University’s Mass Communication Department. He found the antagonism there even worse. It was a double jeopardy: Pashtun students aligned to Sunni parties saw him as a Shia outcaste liable, as their posters suggest, to be killed; Baloch suspected him as an army infiltrator who had been sent to spy on them. Here is the heart-breaker: He was not trusted even by his army colleagues back at the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) offices. He was kept out of the local intelligence loop. A new commandant had issued instructions not to let him see even the army’s movement roster. He was absolutely dismayed.
Shafaat shared his pain with me while we were traveling the length and breadth of Balochistan during one of my earlier visits there a few months ago. In all we spent about 62 hours together but now it appears like an entire lifetime. I had requested the ISPR to give me an attachment so that I could visit army’s remote outposts to get their side of the story. To my luck—came along Shafaat who was part journalist because of his Mass Communication degree. A highly sensitive soul, he was definitely way more knowledgeable and objective than your typical army officer. We travelled through Bolan Pass, Sibbi, Dera Allah Rar, Kashmore to Dera Bugti and back exploring some of the most explosive places in Pakistan. We had all the time during our long travels, sometimes 13 hours straight, to discuss Balochistan, particularly Hazaras.
We stopped by at Kolpur just outside the Quetta valley where, he told me, his ancestors had come as coal miners to escape the excesses of Afghan King Abdur Rehman in the 1890s. Kol means a cap in which they received their days’ earning and Pur means abode—hence abode of the cap-wielding people. Even today, a majority of Hazaras works on menial jobs as miners and labourers. We saw in Mach coal mines down the way that they remain as sturdy and hard working as they were a century ago.
Shafaat was constantly receiving calls from his family. He laughed that his wife and children were worried not because he was travelling to such dangerous areas but because they feared he might be targeted as a Hazara. “I don’t blame them,” I remember him saying, “such has been our life lately; I also fear the same every time my daughter goes to school or my wife goes to bazaar.”
Hazara are an easy target because they are easily distinguishable from the other ethnic groups because of their Mongol features. Over 700 Hazara Shias have been killed in the last decade.
As many as 39 Hazaras died in the last 19 days. Last September, religious processions organized by the community were targeted twice killing around 50 people. Then came the Mastung carnage the same month. It is not just the staggering number of Hazaras killed but the brutality that was shown by killers.
A bus carrying Hazara pilgrims to Quetta was brutally assaulted. All the 26 men and boys aboard were taken out of the bus, lined up and shot, as their mothers, wives and sisters watched from inside. Unafraid, the assailants had insured that the highway was blocked on both ends when they conducted that ambush. Two more Hazara men were killed after being dragged out of their cars at a traffic light in Quetta the same evening.The total death toll for the day was over thirty dead and scores more injured. It was mourning for almost every other house among roughly half a million Hazaras as most of them are related through marriages.
Shafaat said he too was sometimes seen as a suspect as many in the community blame the army. The argument goes that if the ISI can kill dump hundreds of Baloch, why cannot they get hold of a bunch of religious fanatics. “I am a suspect for me colleagues, my friends and my community,” he said sadly. His family wanted him to move to Australia. Thousands of Hazaras have moved to Australia and Canada in the last few years. Some take grave risks. Hundreds have died in containers, crossing borders, others in ship wrecks. Over 300 people died off the coast of Java last December, most of them Hazaras. So desperate are people from this cruelty that they are willing to take every risk to get out of here.
Shafaat was not the one to leave. He was too much in love with the Community that had held him in suspicion, the army that had disappointed him and Quetta that had scorned him. He was a proud Hazara, khaki as well as a Quettawal. Shafaat got a call while he was explaining his affection for the three. He turned suddenly pale. Another attack on Hazaras had taken place. Six were shot dead execution style while drinking tea at one of the many roadside stalls in Quetta. One of them was his relative. He almost fainted, sweating profusely. Being a small expert in cardiac symptoms, I could see it was serious. I got him a doze of aspirins and brain relaxants and requested him to “take it easy.” Obviously, he was very sensitive about the whole thing. On my way back I also talked to his family to keep him calm and away from such news.
I got a call from his number 15 days later. A big ‘hello’ came out of my mouth, without realizing that it was his daughter. “So where’s your dad,” I chuckled. “He died today,” she replied.
He was only 32. A noble honest man, but born with a flat nose and chinky eyes. Maybe he deserved to die because he naively believed himself to be a Pakistani. But in today’s Pakistan, he was just a Hazara.
SIYASI MAKTOOBAT | WEEKLY AKHBAR-E-JEHAN, URDU MAGAZINE
An interesting piece about CM of Balochistan. Is it another another joke by CM OR just some fun loving guys, making some jokes with CM? Who knows?
SIYASI MAKTOOBAT | WEEKLY AKHBAR-E-JEHAN, URDU MAGAZINE
SIYASI MAKTOOBAT | WEEKLY AKHBAR-E-JEHAN, URDU MAGAZINE
Pakistani journalist seeks asylum
From:The Australian
May 31, 2012 12:00AM
Human rights groups and journalists yesterday marked the first anniversary of the murder of Saleem Shahzad yesterday. Source:AP
A PAKISTANI journalist from the persecuted Shia Hazara community has sought asylum in Australia, saying he was forced to flee the country because of death threats from military-backed militants.
News of 38-year-old Amjad Hussain's plea for asylum emerged yesterday as journalists and human rights groups in Pakistan and internationally marked the first anniversary of the murder of Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad.
Shahzad's tortured body was found floating in an irrigation channel about 100km from the Islamabad, weeks after he expressed fears for his life and revealed he had received threats from the Inter Services Intelligence agency.
Shahzad, known to have impeccable contacts in Pakistan's security establishment and within Islamic militant groups, had raised ISI hackles with a series of stories exploring links between the two sides.
A commission of inquiry into his death failed to reach a conclusion and no one has been apprehended for his murder.
Amnesty International yesterday condemned that failure and said Shahzad's killing "highlighted the perils faced by journalists in Pakistan".
Pakistan remains one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists with at least three killed in the past five months, and six last year.
Mr Hussain, who claims to have been a close friend and colleague of Shahzad, says he fled the country fearing he would meet a similar fate because of his reports on the sectarian and extra-judicial murders, disappearances and human rights abuses against the Hazara and other communities in Balochistan.
The province has been embroiled for decades in a bloody battle between Baloch nationalists and paramilitary forces. Human Rights Watch estimates more than 275 Hazaras (who adhere to the Shia Muslim faith) were murdered in targeted killings between 2008 and 2011 in Balochistan.
Mr Hussain is being held in West Australia's Curtin Detention Centre but says, despite the difficult conditions, he now feels "protected" from the Islamic terror groups that threatened his life.
"I didn't want to become another Saleem Shahzad," he said in an interview published in the Huffington Post. "I was not ready to move to a third city and still meet Shahzad's fate."
Mr Hussain was based in Balochistan for the English language news channel Dawn TV before transferring from the provincial capital Quetta to Islamabad in 2010 following death threats, and a narrow escape from a suicide attack.
But he claims the threats continued after he moved to the capital and last October he quit his job and fled the country.
Dawn TV's Quetta bureau chief Ali Shah confirmed yesterday Mr Hussain had faced threats and persecution because he was Hazara, but said he was not aware he had received threats because of his reporting.
"It's really simple. There's a sectarian problem in Quetta city. His life was in danger because he was a Shia Hazara," Mr Shah told The Australian.
An email written by Mr Hussain in January this year to his former Islamabad employers reveals his plans to seek asylum in Australia and his need for evidence to support his case of persecution.
May 31, 2012 12:00AM
Human rights groups and journalists yesterday marked the first anniversary of the murder of Saleem Shahzad yesterday. Source:AP
A PAKISTANI journalist from the persecuted Shia Hazara community has sought asylum in Australia, saying he was forced to flee the country because of death threats from military-backed militants.
News of 38-year-old Amjad Hussain's plea for asylum emerged yesterday as journalists and human rights groups in Pakistan and internationally marked the first anniversary of the murder of Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad.
Shahzad's tortured body was found floating in an irrigation channel about 100km from the Islamabad, weeks after he expressed fears for his life and revealed he had received threats from the Inter Services Intelligence agency.
Shahzad, known to have impeccable contacts in Pakistan's security establishment and within Islamic militant groups, had raised ISI hackles with a series of stories exploring links between the two sides.
A commission of inquiry into his death failed to reach a conclusion and no one has been apprehended for his murder.
Amnesty International yesterday condemned that failure and said Shahzad's killing "highlighted the perils faced by journalists in Pakistan".
Pakistan remains one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists with at least three killed in the past five months, and six last year.
Mr Hussain, who claims to have been a close friend and colleague of Shahzad, says he fled the country fearing he would meet a similar fate because of his reports on the sectarian and extra-judicial murders, disappearances and human rights abuses against the Hazara and other communities in Balochistan.
The province has been embroiled for decades in a bloody battle between Baloch nationalists and paramilitary forces. Human Rights Watch estimates more than 275 Hazaras (who adhere to the Shia Muslim faith) were murdered in targeted killings between 2008 and 2011 in Balochistan.
Mr Hussain is being held in West Australia's Curtin Detention Centre but says, despite the difficult conditions, he now feels "protected" from the Islamic terror groups that threatened his life.
"I didn't want to become another Saleem Shahzad," he said in an interview published in the Huffington Post. "I was not ready to move to a third city and still meet Shahzad's fate."
Mr Hussain was based in Balochistan for the English language news channel Dawn TV before transferring from the provincial capital Quetta to Islamabad in 2010 following death threats, and a narrow escape from a suicide attack.
But he claims the threats continued after he moved to the capital and last October he quit his job and fled the country.
Dawn TV's Quetta bureau chief Ali Shah confirmed yesterday Mr Hussain had faced threats and persecution because he was Hazara, but said he was not aware he had received threats because of his reporting.
"It's really simple. There's a sectarian problem in Quetta city. His life was in danger because he was a Shia Hazara," Mr Shah told The Australian.
An email written by Mr Hussain in January this year to his former Islamabad employers reveals his plans to seek asylum in Australia and his need for evidence to support his case of persecution.
Hazara man shot dead in Quetta
Published: May 30, 2012
Mohammad Ali was on his way on a bicycle when unknown assailants fired at him.
QUETTA: A member of the Hazara community was shot dead near a roadside hotel on Joint Road, Quetta on Wednesday.
According to the police, the victim identified as Ali Mohammad, son of Gulam Ali Hazara, was travelling on his cycle when armed assailants riding on a motorbike opened fire at him. Mohammad was killed on the spot and his body was rushed to the Provincial Sandeman hospital for autopsy.
The victim was a Shia Muslim hailing from Marriabad, a Hazara dominated area.
Talking to The Express Tribune, a police official said that the murder could have been a case of sectarian target killing, but it was premature to make any conclusions. “A case has been registered against unknown persons and an investigation is underway.”
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